By Naomi Akintunde
“Olodo rabata….shuku shuku rabata”
There is a trend of silent sabotage in the corridors of historical intellectualism, and what I have read so far about our reputable School of History weighs upon my conscience. There is a generation determined to stain the white garment of Kenneth Dike, the unwavering decency of Biobaku, the sagacity of J. F. Ade Ajayi, and the many righteous labours upon which we have the privilege to tell history.
“Olodo,” as a popular word, is something we used in primary school for below average performance. However, the word has birthed a second meaning, and it is time we started using that one instead. Because the olodos flooding Nigerian classrooms today are not the ones who cannot perform, not the dull ones, but the intelligent and clever who have taken it as a matter of routine to use their intelligence in a way that glorifies Satan, that is, if it was the devil who sent them.
Everyone knows what post UTME smells like. Getting past JAMB and post UTME here is closer to a camel passing through the eye of a needle than a stroke of luck. Anyone who manages to get a seat in the room is definitely not dumb. There is proof of ability. So when this same person enters the university, forgets their days of beginning, and accompanies themselves with an “exhibit” into the exam hall, it cannot be because they lack capacity. It has to be something else: choice. A deliberate act of willful rebellion, because the system can neither cough nor sneeze.
“Olodo” now has grades. Some are targeting first class with stolen knowledge. There is the student who knows exactly what they know and do not know, knows precisely what it would take to close that gap, but simply is not willing to stretch. There is the student who has quietly accepted mediocrity as an identity, wearing it “with style” rather than as a stage to grow out of. There is the bystander who watches a classmate copy and says nothing because saying something feels like betrayal. And there is the one who goes further and hates the classmate who speaks up, as if honesty is the crime.
That latter group deserves closer observation. Insulting a fellow student for calling out examination malpractice is not so different from turning on a neighbour for reporting an armed robber. Apparently, both are robbers. It is just a matter of time before the other carries a gun. Perhaps he himself is a robber who has not been caught yet. The miscreants who believe they can do anything in an examination hall and get away with it should know that, just as Rome was not built in a day, it also did not collapse in a day.
Studying colonialism should teach you exactly what it costs a people to let shortcuts and self interest override collective integrity, yet here we are, tracing the fall of empires by day and undermining our own standards by night. If we study history with dishonesty, then those who accused our ancestors of barbarism were right, because there are descendants proving them right. Whoever steals the labour of others and believes the hard worker is not civilized has embraced the very foundation of colonization.
Imagine these academic fraudsters were at the Berlin Conference representing Africa. These soulless disasters would have done worse than Otto von Bismarck. The uncomfortable truth is that proximity to power, or to knowledge, has never automatically produced integrity. It has to be chosen deliberately every time, including in an examination hall where nobody else is watching.
This is not really about one incident. A university degree was never supposed to be only about the certificate. It is supposed to shape how you think and what you are willing to defend when no one is checking. If a graduate can rationalize copying their way through a history degree, we should not be shocked when they rationalize far bigger things once they are the ones holding power.
This article is not telling you what to do. You know exactly what you are doing, and your blinded conscience will not let you read to this point. Your deliberate act of ignorance is intentional and contracted from the pit of hell. A man’s hair cannot be shaved in his absence unless he is a dead man. To our very heroes past, the late Dr. David Olayinka Ajayi said, and I quote, “If you are silent in the face of injustice, the man in you is dead.”
If things continue this way, this generation will be worse than the one dealing with us currently. A heartless soul glorifies evil, and the young evil mind will one day mature. As they say, fools also grow old. A battered system that glorifies mediocrity—little wonder these calibres of academic fraud make their way to Government House.
A battle line has been drawn, and the tree that refuses to produce succulent fruit will be uprooted, and we are sure SDC can help with that. Also, reforms that will reconstruct the system should be introduced. Chief among them is that CCTV cameras be introduced into our examination halls. Secondly, a law supporting students to petition anyone caught in the act of malpractice should be included in the Students’ Handbook. Thirdly, anyone found supporting malpractice, perhaps through social media, should be penalized. Lastly, a bounty should be placed on malpractice. Perhaps a student who turns in a fellow student guilty of malpractice with evidence should receive a reward of not less than ₦50,000. The above recommendations can be adjusted; however, they will save the system from irredeemable collapse.
May the labours of our heroes past, not end up in vain!
